OK, I am fired up. I got a call this morning from a Seattle, WA phone number [206-496-0928] that claimed I was getting a message from Google Places because my listing had not been verified. Knowing that I had years ago, - red flag #1 - I still accepted the call as my curiosity was peaked. - red flag #2 - was the fact that I know Google Places had been replaced by GoogIe + Local on May 30th this year. I was then forwarded to a woman who told me the same thing, but when she told me because my listing wasn't verified I could not be found on Google, I knew immediately what this was. She pretended to give me the wrong name for my business; I said "no that's not it." The rest of the conversation went like this:

"This is Rebecca LeClaire, right?"me - "Yup!" I said, feeling the blood boiling for all my clients that have been scammed."Is your business MC Design & Services, LLC?"me - "Yup.""Is your phone number 616-881-3753?"me - "Yup.""You are very hard to find."- is there something about that that sounds funny to you? If I was hard to find how did she know all the information about my business with just my name? red flag #3 - me (ready to have a little fun) - "You're not Google are you?""No, Google wouldn't call you, we didn't say that, but you are very hard to find and..."me - "you said you were Google when you called me, your being dishonest, something about how I know a thing or two about SEO, rant rant rant"

still going on....."you can't be found"...that's all that's in my scriptme - hung up

I checked how my google rankings were doing while on the phone by making sure I was logged off of Google and picking random cities around the United States and Canada to set my location as.Guess, what? I can be found. :)Why would I log off and change my location on Google? Because Google tracks all your searches and tries to bring up what you are most likely interested in and also brings the results for products and services that are closest to your location. That is why you should never trust the ranking results over the phone or in an email that an "SEO expert" tells you. They could be in California and you could be in New York.

When I hung up I looked over at my four daughters, who are home from summer vacation and were all sitting on the couch, their mouths hung open with that 'deer in the headlights' look at the realization that their mom who expects them always to be polite and respectful just yelled at someone on the phone. Making me feel a little guilty they asked me if it was the poor lady's fault that she was making that phone call for her boss. I told them about all the people that have called me that have lost a lot of money to companies like that, that I was being told lies over and over again, and that the lady I was talking to needed to know she was working for a dishonest company if she didn't know she was lying.OK, so maybe I still feel a little bad...so scammers I will try not to raise my voice next time, I will just hang up...and I advise you do too!

At MC Design & Services, LLC we will be honest with you about your search engine ranking. We will even tell you when you have reached a point that you may want to lower your monthly budget on SEO.Contact Us for a truthful consultation.

I often share how funny my 4-year old Paris' little brain works. Lately, she seems to be creating her own language. I think this may be the result of ease-dropping on her learned father teaching her elder siblings new words. I have to stay sharp to keep up with them all!

Here are a few examples:abadeable - Used in a sentence; "I told Tucker hitting girls is NOT abadeable!"

crazy hair day - Used in a sentence; "OK mom you can do my hair, but this is not crazy hair day."

dispensadility - Used in a sentance; (after being told to pick up after herself and that she forgot to turn off the basement light)"It is not my dispensadillity to turn the lights off!"I was laughing too hard at this one to dispense a dility on her ars.

goodappointed - Used in a sentence; "Thank you for driving the stroller in the shade, I'm happy now, I'm goodappointed."

old-lady - well, apparently it is now acceptable for 4 year olds to refer to their 36 year old mothers as such, I'll leave it at that.

Our family went camping last weekend. My husband was having a hard time being patient waiting in the one-lane line to get into the campground as one individual either waved you through or sold you an entrance sticker. Our second time into the campground that day had us waiting again. As soon as the car ahead of us took off, Paris yelled out the window "Bye bye Pickle Suckers!" Afte laughing our faces off, we scrambled to think of how she came up with that one and whether anyone heard our 4 year old say that. Then it came to me - she hates pickles, and her sisters love them. So the people in front of us that were making us wait were people who not only ate pickles but must have savored the foul food also.

1. You know you have been too sarcastic lately when you pay your husband a compliment and he asks “why are you talking to me that way?”

2. You know you have bad road rage when your kids see orange-striped cones up ahead and they say to each other from the back of the car, “Oh no, Mama’s going to get mad.” In my defense there has been a lot of construction lately and I have a knack for running into more construction when I make a turn to avoid it.

3. You know you better check who your 4 year old’s friends are when she says “that song has the S-word in it” - she may have meant “stupid” but how does she know there is such a thing as an “S-word”?

4. You know that unfortunately your children may grow up to be just like you when your 22 month old says “Scooch, child, scooch!” to his sister.

5. You know your children don’t yet understand that their little brother is not an animal that can be put up for adoption or put down if it doesn’t work out, when after marveling at his skills of remembering everyone’s name correctly, one of them says, “yeh, he’s tamed now.”

After being told to calm down with her little brother and ignoring the warning, I pulled Paris' hands off of her brother. Forgetting herself she swatted me on the arm and then looked up at me in horror. I gasped and was about to start the lecture and hand out punishment, when Paris put her tiny hand over my mouth and said, "Don't say a word."

I've found it very interesting that Paris suddenly loves to go shopping with me. Today she asked if we could go look at all the things she might choose for her birthday, me being short on time and her birthday not being until January, I said "no, not today your birthday isn't for a long time anyway." Too which Paris said to herself under her breathe, "well, I guess I hate shopping now."

After walking in what seemed like gail force winds to our car and crawling safely into our van, Paris said "shwew, that wind almost took my talking away!"

Paris - Did you know that you can call ants and spiders bad words?Me - You can? Why do you think that!?Paris - Because they poke you and God didn't know that when he made themMe - laughter and theology lesson ensues